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SWAMI SHANKARANANDA
L.M.: That is more suited to the Indian temperament, and to the ashram
environment.
S. SHANK: Precisely, when you live in an ashram, in that secluded environment, you are not commuting to work. Your life is rather well prescribed and ordered. It doesn't mean however that the spiritual benefits are greater because the practice is more complicated. Yogananda simplified it because if he had he would not have been able to reach the Western mentality, or connected with the Western way of living.
not,
L.M.: He wouldn't have come to America at all.
S. SHANK: He is the teacher who brought kriya here in a simplified form, and which my guru Premananda also taught. This simplified technique allows anyone to practice it, even if they have physical limitations-the ancient form of kriya would exclude those people.
L.M.: Such as a handicapped individual. Now, the role of the guru on the spiritual path is exemplified by Jesus and Krishna, and Guru Nanak and Kabir; and by the Sant tradition in India. The guru's role is however much misunderstood in the West. How do you perceive the guru-disciple relationship-and do members of your Divine Life Church in Baltimore regard you as their guru?
S. SHANK: Yes, they do. I was accepted by many as the guru even before I officially became a swami, though I did not accept the title of guru. I kept telling them that I am not your guru, I'm not a guru. But they insisted, saying that whether or not you accept it, you are the guru to us. So I had to meditate long and hard about that over a period of years. Finally, I realized that if I were to continue to deny that guru-disciple relationship, what would that then say about my own relationship to the guru and the whole spiritual tradition?
L.M.: It is a kind of marriage between guru and disciple.
S. SHANK: I love the term marriage that you use. It is like a spiritual marriage, though I myself have never used that term. That is exactly what it is. The guru-disciple relationship is unlike any other human relationship.
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